The present study looks at the deictic adverbs now and 現在 ( xianzai ) and examines their respective roles in English and Chinese. Now and xianzai are commonly considered to be semantically equivalent. Their primary value is temporal: both now and xianzai refer to the time of utterance, or more generally to a temporal interval which includes the time of utterance. By examining a parallel corpus of Taiwanese and English novels, this paper aims to show that apart from this present-reference value, now and xianzai have little in common. The analysis of aligned texts reveals that: ( 1 ) now is more frequent than xianzai; ( 2 ) there is an asymmetry in the temporal use of both markers. Following Wang (2001) , I argue that now has a wider semantic range than xianzai : whereas now might be used pragmatically ( Now, why on earth did she leave at such a time? ), xianzai is limited to strict temporal reference. It appears that even in its temporal use, now is more complex than xianzai ; now is quasi-systematically contrastive, whereas xianzai tends to be purely deictic. We conclude that now is closer in function to the Chinese particle le than to the adverb xianzai .
{"title":"Now and xianzai: A contrastive study of two deictic adverbs","authors":"M. Boulin","doi":"10.1075/LIC.17.1.01BOU","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.17.1.01BOU","url":null,"abstract":"The present study looks at the deictic adverbs now and 現在 ( xianzai ) and examines their respective roles in English and Chinese. Now and xianzai are commonly considered to be semantically equivalent. Their primary value is temporal: both now and xianzai refer to the time of utterance, or more generally to a temporal interval which includes the time of utterance. By examining a parallel corpus of Taiwanese and English novels, this paper aims to show that apart from this present-reference value, now and xianzai have little in common. The analysis of aligned texts reveals that: ( 1 ) now is more frequent than xianzai; ( 2 ) there is an asymmetry in the temporal use of both markers. Following Wang (2001) , I argue that now has a wider semantic range than xianzai : whereas now might be used pragmatically ( Now, why on earth did she leave at such a time? ), xianzai is limited to strict temporal reference. It appears that even in its temporal use, now is more complex than xianzai ; now is quasi-systematically contrastive, whereas xianzai tends to be purely deictic. We conclude that now is closer in function to the Chinese particle le than to the adverb xianzai .","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"21 1","pages":"1-17"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73895654","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this book, the author examines a French structure that has gained a lot of attention in the last two decades, viz. the gerund. A comparison of its usage in French with the corresponding structures in Swedish shows (1) the multifunctionality of the French gerund and (2) the way Swedish translators deal with this multifunctionality. The study is exclusively synchronic and descriptive. The first chapter presents mainly the corpus of the study, which contains 13 original French and 13 original Swedish novels and their Swedish and French translations (52 novels in total). It also presents the theoretical framework, which is almost entirely built on the work of Swedish authors (e.g. Halmøy 2003) and on Kleiber (e.g. 2007, 2009). The absence of a general framework and of modern theories is one of the weakest points of the book.
{"title":"Review of Hellqvist, Birgitta (2015) Le gérondif en français et les structures correspondantes en suédois.","authors":"Jasper Vangaever","doi":"10.1075/LIC.17.1.07VAN","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.17.1.07VAN","url":null,"abstract":"In this book, the author examines a French structure that has gained a lot of attention in the last two decades, viz. the gerund. A comparison of its usage in French with the corresponding structures in Swedish shows (1) the multifunctionality of the French gerund and (2) the way Swedish translators deal with this multifunctionality. The study is exclusively synchronic and descriptive. The first chapter presents mainly the corpus of the study, which contains 13 original French and 13 original Swedish novels and their Swedish and French translations (52 novels in total). It also presents the theoretical framework, which is almost entirely built on the work of Swedish authors (e.g. Halmøy 2003) and on Kleiber (e.g. 2007, 2009). The absence of a general framework and of modern theories is one of the weakest points of the book.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"29 1","pages":"151-153"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75906851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Flöck, Ilka: Requests in American and British English: A contrastive multi-method analysis. - Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 2016. - ISBN: 978 90 272 6676 7. - DOI: 10.1075/pbns.265","authors":"Rebekah Wegener","doi":"10.1075/LIC.17.2.08WEG","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.17.2.08WEG","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"15 1","pages":"308-311"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2017-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87495001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Coherence relations linking discourse segments can be communicated explicitly by the use of connectives but also implicitly through juxtaposition. Some discourse relations appear, however, to be more coherent than others when conveyed implicitly. This difference is explained in the literature by the existence of default expectations guiding discourse interpretation. In this paper, we assess the factors influencing implicitation by comparing the number of implicit and explicit translations of three polysemous French connectives in translated texts across three target languages: German, English and Spanish. Each connective can convey two discourse relations: one that can easily be conveyed implicitly and one that cannot be easily conveyed implicitly in monolingual data. Results indicate that relations that can easily be conveyed implicitly are also those that are most often left implicit in translation in all target languages. We discuss these results in view of the cognitive factors influencing the explicit or implicit communication of discourse relations.
{"title":"Discourse connectives across languages. Factors influencing their explicit or implicit translation","authors":"S. Zufferey","doi":"10.1075/LIC.16.2.05ZUF","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.16.2.05ZUF","url":null,"abstract":"Coherence relations linking discourse segments can be communicated explicitly by the use of connectives but also implicitly through juxtaposition. Some discourse relations appear, however, to be more coherent than others when conveyed implicitly. This difference is explained in the literature by the existence of default expectations guiding discourse interpretation. In this paper, we assess the factors influencing implicitation by comparing the number of implicit and explicit translations of three polysemous French connectives in translated texts across three target languages: German, English and Spanish. Each connective can convey two discourse relations: one that can easily be conveyed implicitly and one that cannot be easily conveyed implicitly in monolingual data. Results indicate that relations that can easily be conveyed implicitly are also those that are most often left implicit in translation in all target languages. We discuss these results in view of the cognitive factors influencing the explicit or implicit communication of discourse relations.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"33 1","pages":"264-279"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85021554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper compares and contrasts the patterns of variation exhibited by canonical tag questions ((C)TQs) in English (e.g. ‘That’s enough, isn’t it?’) with those presented by their analogous constructions in Spanish (Es suficiente, ?no?/ ?verdad?) and Portuguese (E suficiente, nao e?/nao?) across a variety of spoken genres that represent the monologic-dialogic, formal-informal and private-public oppositions. The aim is to provide previously lacking comparative statistics that emerge from this trilingual comparison along four parameters: (i) frequencies, (ii) formal features, (iii) distribution across genres, and (iv) functional characteristics. It will be observed that English CTQs are less frequent than analogous constructions in Spanish and particularly in Portuguese. A tag/polarity-based scale will also be proposed in which Portuguese situates itself at one extreme in displaying the widest array of variant and invariant tag types; at the other extreme is Spanish allowing for invariant tags only, whereas English occupies a middle position as it admits both invariant and variant tags but the latter exhibit less variability in kind than their Portuguese counterparts. Lastly, it will be shown that English CTQs display less distributional and functional flexibility than the analogous constructions in the two Romance languages under analysis.
本文比较和对比了英语中典型附加疑问句((C) tq)(如“That ' s enough, isn ' t it?”)与西班牙语中类似结构(Es sufficiiciente， ?no?)所呈现的变化模式。/ ?verdad?)和葡萄牙语(E sufficiiciente, nao E ?/nao?)跨越各种口语类型，代表独白-对话，正式-非正式和私人-公共对立。目的是提供以前缺乏的比较统计数据，这些统计数据来自于这种三语比较，涉及四个参数:(i)频率，(ii)形式特征，(iii)跨类型分布，以及(iv)功能特征。我们会发现，英语的ctq比西班牙语中的类似结构更少，尤其是在葡萄牙语中。还将提出一个基于标签/极性的量表，其中葡萄牙语在显示最广泛的可变和不变标签类型方面处于一个极端;另一个极端是西班牙语，只允许使用不变标签，而英语则处于中间位置，因为它既允许使用不变标签，也允许使用变标签，但后者在种类上的可变性比葡萄牙语要小。最后，我们将会发现英语的ctq在分布和功能上的灵活性要低于两种罗曼语的类似结构。
{"title":"Canonical tag questions in English, Spanish and Portuguese: A discourse-functional study","authors":"María Angeles González","doi":"10.1075/LIC.14.1.06GOM","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.14.1.06GOM","url":null,"abstract":"This paper compares and contrasts the patterns of variation exhibited by canonical tag questions ((C)TQs) in English (e.g. ‘That’s enough, isn’t it?’) with those presented by their analogous constructions in Spanish (Es suficiente, ?no?/ ?verdad?) and Portuguese (E suficiente, nao e?/nao?) across a variety of spoken genres that represent the monologic-dialogic, formal-informal and private-public oppositions. The aim is to provide previously lacking comparative statistics that emerge from this trilingual comparison along four parameters: (i) frequencies, (ii) formal features, (iii) distribution across genres, and (iv) functional characteristics. It will be observed that English CTQs are less frequent than analogous constructions in Spanish and particularly in Portuguese. A tag/polarity-based scale will also be proposed in which Portuguese situates itself at one extreme in displaying the widest array of variant and invariant tag types; at the other extreme is Spanish allowing for invariant tags only, whereas English occupies a middle position as it admits both invariant and variant tags but the latter exhibit less variability in kind than their Portuguese counterparts. Lastly, it will be shown that English CTQs display less distributional and functional flexibility than the analogous constructions in the two Romance languages under analysis.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"22 1","pages":"93-126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86928930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The increasing interest in cross-linguistic research in the area of epistemic modality calls for developing a common theoretical framework within which the inventories and uses of epistemics can be compared across languages. The aim of this study is to compare the repertoires of English and Polish adverbs of certainty taking as the starting point the classification employed by Simon-Vandenbergen and Aijmer (2007). It attempts to examine the validity of their typology for cross-linguistic studies with reference to data from English and Polish. The uses of English and Polish epistemics are illustrated with examples from the British National Corpus and the PWN corpus, respectively. Because the means of expressing epistemic modality differ both the cross-linguistically and cross-culturally, the findings are placed in a cross-cultural perspective.
{"title":"Adverbs of certainty in a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective: English-Polish","authors":"Agata Rozumko","doi":"10.1075/LIC.16.2.04ROZ","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.16.2.04ROZ","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing interest in cross-linguistic research in the area of epistemic modality calls for developing a common theoretical framework within which the inventories and uses of epistemics can be compared across languages. The aim of this study is to compare the repertoires of English and Polish adverbs of certainty taking as the starting point the classification employed by Simon-Vandenbergen and Aijmer (2007). It attempts to examine the validity of their typology for cross-linguistic studies with reference to data from English and Polish. The uses of English and Polish epistemics are illustrated with examples from the British National Corpus and the PWN corpus, respectively. Because the means of expressing epistemic modality differ both the cross-linguistically and cross-culturally, the findings are placed in a cross-cultural perspective.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"63 1","pages":"239-263"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90512757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study explores mediated identity construction on the local and global stage, in Greek-English tourism material. It examines sample data, drawing on the Greek National Tourism Organization website, to identify shifts in the Greek and English versions of the data using Swain’s (2009) model of critical cosmopolitan orientations. The critical cosmopolitan framework is shown to be instrumental in revealing identity construction tendencies in the two versions, which shape the interaction of host and visitor, the destination and the travel experience. Findings raise awareness of how identities are perceived and constructed in the tourism business and of the formative potential of these practices on discourses. They also have consequences for training practices in tourism advertising, the translation of identities and self-representation practices. Results are expected to carve a path towards raising awareness of the complexities involved in cultural communication and the construction of messages.
{"title":"Shaping the glo/cal in Greek–English tourism advertising: A critical cosmopolitan perspective","authors":"Stavroula Kefala, M. Sidiropoulou","doi":"10.1075/LIC.16.2.02KEF","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.16.2.02KEF","url":null,"abstract":"The study explores mediated identity construction on the local and global stage, in Greek-English tourism material. It examines sample data, drawing on the Greek National Tourism Organization website, to identify shifts in the Greek and English versions of the data using Swain’s (2009) model of critical cosmopolitan orientations. The critical cosmopolitan framework is shown to be instrumental in revealing identity construction tendencies in the two versions, which shape the interaction of host and visitor, the destination and the travel experience. Findings raise awareness of how identities are perceived and constructed in the tourism business and of the formative potential of these practices on discourses. They also have consequences for training practices in tourism advertising, the translation of identities and self-representation practices. Results are expected to carve a path towards raising awareness of the complexities involved in cultural communication and the construction of messages.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"12 1","pages":"191-212"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75420788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper provides an analysis of the lexico-grammatical features used in English and Spanish in the rhetorical part pertaining to the proposal step of a particular genre, meeting minutes . The results have been used in the construction of a computerized writing aid designed to assist Spanish writers when writing minutes in English. Corpus-based contrast reveals that minutes share a common rhetorical structure but show differences in the lexico-grammatical choices associated with the various rhetorical parts. Proposals are conveyed both in English and Spanish by means of lexical verbs, deverbal constructions and certain clause types. Cross-linguistic differences are in the choice of tense, mood and voice. The analysis also suggests different degrees of conventionalization of these resources in the two languages. Results form part of a linguistic prototype that includes three main components: rhetorical information in Spanish, grammatical strings in English and bilingual genre/move restricted glossaries.
{"title":"Proposals in meeting minutes: An English-Spanish corpus-based study","authors":"Rosa Rabadán","doi":"10.1075/LIC.16.2.03RAB","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.16.2.03RAB","url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides an analysis of the lexico-grammatical features used in English and Spanish in the rhetorical part pertaining to the proposal step of a particular genre, meeting minutes . The results have been used in the construction of a computerized writing aid designed to assist Spanish writers when writing minutes in English. Corpus-based contrast reveals that minutes share a common rhetorical structure but show differences in the lexico-grammatical choices associated with the various rhetorical parts. Proposals are conveyed both in English and Spanish by means of lexical verbs, deverbal constructions and certain clause types. Cross-linguistic differences are in the choice of tense, mood and voice. The analysis also suggests different degrees of conventionalization of these resources in the two languages. Results form part of a linguistic prototype that includes three main components: rhetorical information in Spanish, grammatical strings in English and bilingual genre/move restricted glossaries.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"76 1","pages":"213-238"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72801374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ruihua Zhang, Sadness Expressions in English and Chinese: Corpus Linguistic Contrastive Semantic Analysis .","authors":"Hai Xu, Ziyue Chen","doi":"10.1075/LIC.16.2.07XU","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.16.2.07XU","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"1 1","pages":"285-288"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89640242","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Driven by a shortage of studies on the morphosemantics of word-formation from a contrastive perspective, this article examines 200 English and Spanish terms from the olive oil industry with the aim of shedding light on their linguistic nature. This is achieved by use of a corpus which makes it possible to retrieve the units and their contexts from specialised texts. Besides considering the derivational features of the relevant terminogenesic processes, this investigation considers their semantic characteristics and connects the terms’ formal and meaning aspects. This, in turn, allows observing the close relationship between morphology and semantics in terminological spheres, which is directly linked with the role of these units as a tool for specialised communication. Once the morphosemantic features of the terms have been fully accounted for in English and Spanish individually, a comparison is drawn between the two languages in order to spot and describe similarities and differences.
{"title":"A morphosemantic investigation of term formation processes in English and Spanish","authors":"Jesús Fernández-Domínguez","doi":"10.1075/LIC.16.1.03FER","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1075/LIC.16.1.03FER","url":null,"abstract":"Driven by a shortage of studies on the morphosemantics of word-formation from a contrastive perspective, this article examines 200 English and Spanish terms from the olive oil industry with the aim of shedding light on their linguistic nature. This is achieved by use of a corpus which makes it possible to retrieve the units and their contexts from specialised texts. Besides considering the derivational features of the relevant terminogenesic processes, this investigation considers their semantic characteristics and connects the terms’ formal and meaning aspects. This, in turn, allows observing the close relationship between morphology and semantics in terminological spheres, which is directly linked with the role of these units as a tool for specialised communication. Once the morphosemantic features of the terms have been fully accounted for in English and Spanish individually, a comparison is drawn between the two languages in order to spot and describe similarities and differences.","PeriodicalId":43502,"journal":{"name":"Languages in Contrast","volume":"191 1","pages":"54-83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91216716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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